Vigil #5
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | I think about half an hour ago. | 0:02 |
- | Okay. | 0:04 |
- | As the President of the United States, | 0:05 |
the push for Congressional action to | 0:06 | |
implement the recommendations of the | 0:08 | |
President's commission on civil disorder, | 0:09 | |
we ask senators and congressmen to pass | 0:10 | |
open housing legislation and Carolina city officials | 0:12 | |
insisting that they show greater concern | 0:14 | |
for the grievances and problems of the black community. | 0:16 | |
That's the first demand, to sign this statement. | 0:19 | |
The second is that Dr Knight | 0:21 | |
use the powers of his office to press | 0:22 | |
the establishment of a dollar 60 minimum | 0:24 | |
for all employees as the | 0:26 | |
first priority in new financial planning. | 0:28 | |
This is not saying that Dr Knight | 0:30 | |
get dollar 60, we have a fully legally | 0:32 | |
that he use the power of his office | 0:34 | |
to make this the first priority | 0:35 | |
in all financial arrangements. | 0:37 | |
(audience laughs) | 0:39 | |
The third is the duct tonight | 0:42 | |
to resign from the Hope Valley Country Club | 0:44 | |
which practices segregation. | 0:45 | |
The fourth is that President Knight | 0:47 | |
appoint a commission of students, | 0:48 | |
faculty and workers to study and make recommendations | 0:49 | |
concerning collective bargaining | 0:52 | |
and union recognition at Duke. | 0:53 | |
So basically sign this petition for those in the dining hall | 0:55 | |
push for the establishment of a dollar 60 minimum wage. | 0:58 | |
(audience cheers) | 1:01 | |
(audience laughs) | 1:02 | |
(audience applauds) | 1:05 | |
(audience laughs) | 1:10 | |
Resign from the Hope Valley Country Club, | 1:17 | |
and appoint student faculty working group | 1:20 | |
to make recommendations about setting up | 1:23 | |
a union collective bargaining at Duke. | 1:25 | |
Now really, | 1:27 | |
we've said a lot about Hope Valley Country Club thing, | 1:29 | |
I guess our logic there has been | 1:32 | |
primarily that Dr Knight, | 1:33 | |
as the President of Duke University | 1:35 | |
really is a sense loyally committed | 1:38 | |
to discourage segregation in any form in this community | 1:40 | |
and to accurately work for racial harmony | 1:43 | |
and the symbol it seems to many of us, | 1:45 | |
of segregation in Durham is at Hope Valley Country Club. | 1:47 | |
Yeah? | 1:51 | |
But this, | 1:54 | |
and actually, the placing the signature | 1:55 | |
on the advertisement to be placed | 2:00 | |
in the Durham Morning Herald, | 2:01 | |
are considering many of the two lesser | 2:02 | |
important actions that Dr Knight could take. | 2:03 | |
In one sense Hope Valley is a very important | 2:06 | |
symbolic act, but the act of raising | 2:07 | |
of the minimum wage to the dollar 60 | 2:09 | |
and the beginning of establishing collective bargaining | 2:12 | |
in a union at Duke, | 2:15 | |
I think are far more important in their ultimate | 2:16 | |
benefit to blacks in this community. | 2:17 | |
And I think these are the things | 2:20 | |
that we're really most concerned about | 2:21 | |
as we press our demands. | 2:22 | |
- | Jack, thinking about the President, | 2:24 |
somebody has to see Sue Newball | 2:27 | |
right away at the front door. | 2:29 | |
- | Is Sue Newball down here? | 2:30 |
Okay. | 2:31 | |
- | Today and Sue is the (mumbles). | 2:32 |
- | What's the question? | 2:37 |
The question has arisen that the people have spoken with. | 2:39 | |
Disappointingly, we made certain commitments, | 2:41 | |
and we decided to involve certain people | 2:43 | |
outside ourselves, for instance, Local 77, | 2:45 | |
and as Pete Brandon told us, | 2:49 | |
that may mean some people, if this isn't successful, | 2:50 | |
may get fired and find it very difficult | 2:53 | |
to get work in Durham. | 2:55 | |
We have also been involving the black community in Durham, | 2:56 | |
and, shh. | 3:00 | |
By involving the black community, | 3:02 | |
we are giving them expectations, | 3:04 | |
and if we fail them, and if we fail these expectations | 3:06 | |
that we've raised ... | 3:10 | |
(audience laughs) | 3:12 | |
Hey, wait a minute. | 3:14 | |
This morning, and we involved other people. | 3:20 | |
I think the commitment solidified our priorities. | 3:23 | |
Now we just had word just now that | 3:26 | |
our asking the other people in this community | 3:28 | |
to support us and to work with us is | 3:33 | |
starting to begin, Local 77 strike committee | 3:34 | |
is planning and mobilizing right now for | 3:37 | |
a strike this evening. | 3:40 | |
(audience applauds) | 3:41 | |
Oh, the plannings for the strike tomorrow night, | 3:53 | |
and the planning will be going on this evening | 3:55 | |
as this situation develops to see how exactly, | 3:57 | |
how Local 77 and we can best work together | 3:59 | |
to achieve the ends we want. | 4:02 | |
Now I think when we think in terms of Local 77 | 4:04 | |
and the Durham community, and perhaps | 4:07 | |
even national press coverage, | 4:09 | |
the important issues are not the two symbolic ones, | 4:10 | |
these are signing the statement, | 4:14 | |
or resigning from Hope Valley. | 4:15 | |
But there are rather the more substantive ones, | 4:16 | |
first the minimum wage of a dollar 60, | 4:18 | |
in which we're asking President Knight | 4:20 | |
to declare that his top priority in this university. | 4:22 | |
Above anything else including faculty salaries. | 4:24 | |
Because this is something we can say to the | 4:27 | |
people in Durham and to the workers, | 4:29 | |
and to anybody else who's concerned | 4:31 | |
with what we're doing. | 4:32 | |
Here we are, getting actual improvement in people's lives | 4:33 | |
bu what we're doing. | 4:37 | |
It's not a symbolic act, it is something | 4:38 | |
that is actually moving to give them a better life, | 4:40 | |
to afford more of the opportunities | 4:42 | |
to them that America should have offered to everyone. | 4:45 | |
The second issue is setting up a committee | 4:48 | |
made up of students, faculty and workers | 4:52 | |
to set up a way of setting up an election | 4:54 | |
so that the workers at Duke can have a bargaining | 4:58 | |
agent if they want it. | 5:00 | |
Now this is important in a number of ways, | 5:03 | |
first we are demanding that work is | 5:04 | |
being included on this committee. | 5:06 | |
President Knight said in chapel today | 5:08 | |
that workers would be included on some such committees. | 5:10 | |
The second thing is that | 5:13 | |
this issue is important because | 5:15 | |
the idea of a bargaining agent means that | 5:17 | |
employees at Duke University will have | 5:19 | |
some control over their lives. | 5:21 | |
That's exactly why we're here today, | 5:23 | |
to see how much control we have over our lives. | 5:24 | |
And if we are successful here, | 5:27 | |
I think we'll be giving them the people who | 5:28 | |
Martin Luther King was working for | 5:31 | |
in Memphis on the same issue | 5:32 | |
that we'll be giving Durham people | 5:34 | |
some control over their lives, over | 5:36 | |
their relation to the people are hiring them, | 5:38 | |
or firing them, or trying to deal with | 5:40 | |
the other issues like seniority, | 5:43 | |
and work conditions, and | 5:46 | |
grievances that are connected with their jobs. | 5:49 | |
And these two I think are really the important things. | 5:51 | |
Because if we don't get these two, | 5:54 | |
and we get the other two, | 5:55 | |
we've let down the people who are counting on us. | 5:56 | |
We'll go out of here feeling good perhaps, | 5:58 | |
but they won't. | 6:00 | |
And those are the people who, | 6:01 | |
we're in a position that we're haves, | 6:02 | |
we're all at Duke, and | 6:05 | |
we all have a good education in front of us. | 6:06 | |
Society's gonna open up for us. | 6:11 | |
What we're trying to do here is to open | 6:13 | |
up society in some small way for other people. | 6:14 | |
And we have to get these small openings, | 6:16 | |
and this is our start. | 6:18 | |
The dollar 60 minimum | 6:19 | |
and the committee to set up some sort of | 6:20 | |
process of recognizing an official bargaining agent | 6:23 | |
for the employees at Duke. | 6:26 | |
Are there any questions or demands? | 6:34 | |
Yeah? | 6:38 | |
- | Having read the name that if Dr Knight | 6:40 |
was granted a second seat in there, | 6:42 | |
(mumbles) directly to her? | 6:44 | |
- | No, this is not that commitment, | 6:46 |
our commitment is to ask for all four demands. | 6:47 | |
Now we've held open the option at all times | 6:50 | |
of talking with our leaders, our negotiators, | 6:52 | |
and seeing if what they say about what is | 6:55 | |
a conceivable settlement, | 6:58 | |
but we have said we will stay here | 6:59 | |
and believe in four demands in matter. | 7:00 | |
(audience applauds) | 7:02 | |
I don't know anything about that. | 7:14 | |
(group discusses) | 7:16 | |
Of interest to you, it kind of is news | 7:19 | |
and it's of things that while with us | 7:21 | |
maybe of interest to you as far as action goes. | 7:23 | |
Let me just read you this statement. | 7:25 | |
North Carolina State University | 7:26 | |
is planning a white folks march | 7:28 | |
at the governor's mansion tomorrow, Sunday. | 7:29 | |
They leave, whatever the name of their student union is, | 7:30 | |
on State's campus at 12:30pm and march to the mansion. | 7:34 | |
The demonstration will be illegal, | 7:38 | |
and that the Mayor has banned all demonstrations. | 7:39 | |
Bail has been arranged for, | 7:41 | |
and they expect some arrests, | 7:42 | |
and not plan to march with less than 150 to 200 people. | 7:43 | |
The demands include | 7:47 | |
that the governor reconvene the state legislature | 7:48 | |
to deal with open housing. | 7:50 | |
Raising the minimum wage | 7:51 | |
of the state repealing the right to work law, | 7:52 | |
invoke the plan charter, implement the counter report. | 7:55 | |
(audience cheers) | 7:58 | |
A good hand is our respect. | 8:10 | |
What about tracking center to McCarthy? | 8:12 | |
(audience laughs) | 8:14 | |
- | Wait a minute. | 8:19 |
In five seconds. | 8:21 | |
What's the hang up? | 8:37 | |
What's the hang up? | 8:42 | |
- | His integrity. | 8:43 |
The mind is loaded and is-- | 8:45 | |
- | Sorry about that | 8:47 |
- | confused, | |
which would ultimately lead to his death. | 8:49 | |
Any struggle with any ounce of-- | 8:51 | |
- | Do we want this set? | 8:54 |
We don't want this set. | 8:56 | |
- | Save that society from itself. | 8:57 |
- | If you want to take the statements from Minah? | 9:02 |
- | Do you got the statements from Minah's got to be fed? | 9:06 |
- | Okay, how long is it gonna take? | 9:09 |
- | Just pull it up, Scott, | 9:12 |
pull it over on its back like this | 9:13 | |
so you know it has FAQ'd. | 9:15 | |
Push it, that's the point, take it easy Scott, that's it. | 9:17 | |
Okay, I'll seed it to you in five seconds. | 9:20 | |
Starting now. | 9:25 | |
- | Now it is my understanding that the | 9:32 |
employees of the dining hall | 9:35 | |
are being called out on strike by Peter Brandon. | 9:38 | |
At midnight, Sunday night. | 9:41 | |
I think this is most unfortunate. | 9:46 | |
I think that this is a very, very | 9:49 | |
bad time | 9:53 | |
to call this kind of a strike. | 9:56 | |
I think that if there are grievances | 9:58 | |
to be worked out they should be worked out in the | 10:02 | |
coolness of the days following these few | 10:04 | |
emotional days that are going on. | 10:10 | |
Now the Duke University dining halls | 10:15 | |
have the responsibility for feeding | 10:18 | |
the students of Duke University. | 10:21 | |
We are going to carry out these responsibilities | 10:25 | |
to the best of our ability. | 10:28 | |
Now we are concerned about the health and safety | 10:31 | |
of our women students. | 10:35 | |
In view of the situation in the cities | 10:38 | |
throughout the country where there are now riots going on, | 10:40 | |
and the threat of | 10:44 | |
a riot in the city of Durham, | 10:47 | |
I feel very strongly that we must | 10:52 | |
be concerned about the health and safety | 10:55 | |
of our women students first of all. | 10:57 | |
- | Peterson, what have you got now? | 11:06 |
- | Okay standby, next one, watch this one Scott. | 11:07 |
All right this is more of Ted Minah. | 11:11 | |
- | Could you standby for about five seconds, | 11:14 |
I wanna tell some people. | 11:15 | |
- | Okay, hold on. | 11:16 |
Five seconds from now. | 11:19 | |
- | Now in view of that fact, | 11:26 |
the dining halls will be open | 11:28 | |
to serve all women students. | 11:31 | |
We will first of all open the East Campus union | 11:35 | |
for women students, whether or not | 11:39 | |
they're on the board basis. | 11:43 | |
The East campus students will not be open | 11:45 | |
for any men students unless we have enough | 11:47 | |
employees to justify it. | 11:50 | |
We will, if we have enough employees, open | 11:53 | |
Gilbert Adams dining hall, second. | 11:57 | |
And we will also open the Graduate Center dining halls | 12:01 | |
only for the women in residence in the Graduate Center, | 12:06 | |
and in the Dean's house. | 12:09 | |
Whether or not they're on the board basis. | 12:12 | |
We will open the West Campus dining halls | 12:15 | |
in the blue and white room, | 12:18 | |
and possibly the Cambridge end, | 12:20 | |
if we have enough employees remaining. | 12:22 | |
We know that we have enough | 12:30 | |
supervisory employees to | 12:32 | |
supply food for the girls. | 12:38 | |
We hope that we will able to open | 12:42 | |
in the blue and white room to serve students | 12:46 | |
if necessary on a restricted choice of food, | 12:51 | |
however, we will make every effort to provide food | 12:56 | |
for the men on the big campus. | 13:00 | |
- | Okay Evans. | 13:05 |
We are getting our second feature lined up, | 13:07 | |
could you give us a time check? | 13:10 | |
- | Yeah, it's 17 and a half minutes before 9 o'clock. | 13:12 |
I've got something here from Ben DeWalt, do you want that? | 13:17 | |
- | Yes. | 13:19 |
Yes, we'll take that, give me our cue for readiness. | 13:20 | |
- | Okay five seconds now. | 13:24 |
- | Jackson mentioned that he wanted to record it, | 13:30 |
would you like to do the same? | 13:34 | |
- | Yes sir, I have that going now. | 13:36 |
- | All right. | 13:38 |
The information that he gave me, Scott, was that, | 13:40 | |
though he didn't identify the source, | 13:43 | |
that there seemed to be considerable evidence that | 13:46 | |
there might be a strike. | 13:49 | |
And he wondered what the position | 13:52 | |
of the University might be. | 13:54 | |
We would certainly hope there would not be a strike, | 13:59 | |
but should there be one, we of course | 14:02 | |
have our responsibilities to students, patients, | 14:04 | |
and others in the University community to continue services | 14:08 | |
and we would make every effort to do so. | 14:12 | |
As I say, we hoped and feared that would | 14:16 | |
be not a be a strike, and that | 14:19 | |
if there is that our employees would continue | 14:21 | |
to come to work as schedule to carry out | 14:24 | |
their share of these responsibilities | 14:26 | |
to students, patients and others. | 14:28 | |
We much prefer to continue the sort of thing | 14:32 | |
that we've been doing for the past three years, | 14:37 | |
that is, we feel that there's been | 14:40 | |
much progress made through meetings and discussions. | 14:42 | |
Members of the administration admit | 14:47 | |
what Local 77 people, some nine or 10 times | 14:49 | |
over the past three years. | 14:55 | |
As a matter of fact, we | 14:58 | |
had the most recent one of those meetings only yesterday. | 15:01 | |
The, I think the 10th meeting, | 15:06 | |
and there's every reason to believe that | 15:09 | |
many more improvements will continue to result | 15:13 | |
from these continuing discussions. | 15:16 | |
At this meeting yesterday, | 15:20 | |
we at administration agreed to convey | 15:23 | |
several items to the personnel policy committee | 15:25 | |
for consideration. | 15:28 | |
Three of the major items | 15:30 | |
were number one, a dollar 60 minimum, | 15:32 | |
and 45 cent per hour increase. | 15:37 | |
Number two, written university wide procedures | 15:41 | |
regarding warnings and dismissals, | 15:44 | |
and number three, recognition of Local 77. | 15:47 | |
We informed Mr Edward McNeil, their President, | 15:52 | |
that he would receive a written reply on these items | 15:56 | |
immediately after the action taken by the | 15:59 | |
personell policy committee is completed. | 16:02 | |
We do very sincerely hope that employees | 16:07 | |
and students and others will calmly and unemotionally | 16:10 | |
weigh and evaluate all information | 16:16 | |
and all emotional appeals made to them | 16:19 | |
to take or to support any rash | 16:22 | |
or disruptive course of action. | 16:25 | |
- | Are you there? | 16:30 |
- | Evans? | 16:31 |
(discusses) | 16:33 | |
Okay, see us 99, are you ready? | 16:39 | |
- | Minah in three seconds. | 16:42 |
Two, one. | 16:45 | |
- | These university dining halls | 16:47 |
have a above 103 student employees. | 16:49 | |
These student employees have always | 16:55 | |
contributed a great amount to the | 17:00 | |
service of the dining halls. | 17:05 | |
I hope that these students will continue | 17:08 | |
to come to work and to help out. | 17:11 | |
I realize and I certainly can understand | 17:17 | |
the position they're in, | 17:21 | |
but I do hope that there are enough | 17:23 | |
concerned student employees who feel that we | 17:26 | |
do have a responsibility to the students | 17:30 | |
to help us out. | 17:33 | |
And I appeal to all students | 17:35 | |
who are so willing to come and help. | 17:37 | |
- | This is all students and not just students | 17:41 |
that have been previously employed by the dining hall? | 17:43 | |
- | That's right, all students. | 17:45 |
- | That's it. | 17:48 |
- | We're here tonight. | 18:10 |
This'll take a few minutes, so be patient with me. | 18:11 | |
The negotiations are not completed | 18:22 | |
and tonight we will stand fast here, | 18:25 | |
stand fast here. | 18:28 | |
Let me say about the negotiations | 18:31 | |
and about the negotiators. | 18:34 | |
I have very strong faith that (mumbles). | 18:36 | |
- | As soon as you want, I'll turn it off, | 18:42 |
you let me know when you want it turned off. | 18:44 | |
- | At one point the executive, (mumbles). | 18:50 |
(audience member asks question) | 18:53 | |
At one point we'll get to it, that's right. | 18:55 | |
- | Just let me know when you get there, okay? | 18:57 |
- | Let me say this, when we started this march, | 18:58 |
I had strong faith in your three negotiators. | 19:00 | |
And my faith from what I've heard in there | 19:05 | |
has becoming overwhelming. | 19:07 | |
We are going to get us, I sincerely believe, | 19:08 | |
every one of these four points. | 19:10 | |
(audience cheers) | 19:11 | |
I must say that negotiating is going exceedingly well. | 19:38 | |
And I'm quite confident. | 19:43 | |
However, as Dr Strange indicated earlier tonight, | 19:45 | |
we ran into a serious problem. | 19:48 | |
A problem that made me say that | 19:51 | |
these negotiations are not completed tonight. | 19:52 | |
The man, when we came in, | 19:56 | |
that asked for this leader's job, | 19:58 | |
to bring to to this University. | 20:00 | |
- | In Vigil tomorrow, | 20:02 |
we'll man all the main prizes, standing silently | 20:04 | |
for Martin Luther King, we'll have signs, | 20:09 | |
"We shall not be moved", we'll try to witness | 20:12 | |
as best we know how | 20:14 | |
to the University community, to the union people, | 20:16 | |
and to the world at large. | 20:19 | |
This will be an act that will keep us not as I say indoors, | 20:22 | |
it will keep us out with rain, with shine, | 20:24 | |
until our four points are satisfied. | 20:27 | |
Yes. | 20:31 | |
- | I have a suggestion that this new sort | 20:32 |
of spirit that's entered in the whole business | 20:34 | |
be communicated as soon as possible | 20:37 | |
to the campus at large and possibly over DBS tonight. | 20:39 | |
And particularly the sort of role that | 20:42 | |
Dr Knight plays in all this having | 20:44 | |
worn himself to the bone and now assuming a role | 20:46 | |
of almost our leader that instead of ... | 20:49 | |
- | Everybody please sit back down again. | 20:54 |
- | Expressed here by your determination to stay in fast | 20:57 |
and support us so that we can achieve | 21:00 | |
these four points has given me great health. | 21:03 | |
And great support. | 21:07 | |
We must all move to this squad tomorrow, | 21:09 | |
and stay there through all day tomorrow, | 21:13 | |
and all tomorrow night, and into Monday, | 21:16 | |
until our negotiations are resumed and completed. | 21:19 | |
We will expect both the men students | 21:23 | |
and the women students | 21:26 | |
to stay and spend the night with us, | 21:28 | |
East Campus will assign you out to the main quadrangle | 21:30 | |
of West-- | 21:34 | |
(audience cheers) | 21:35 | |
- | Jack Boger! | 21:46 |
- | Yeah? | 21:47 |
- | Could you come and give an announcement | 21:48 |
to the rest of the campus about what's happened please? | 21:48 | |
- | We'll ... | 21:51 |
- | Shh! | 22:12 |
- | Speaking candidly, we hope to have | 22:15 |
a resolution to this before | 22:16 | |
that would be in all 30. | 22:17 | |
We'll discuss strategies as to | 22:20 | |
what we do from that point on | 22:23 | |
when the point arises. | 22:24 | |
I don't think the same necessity to do it, | 22:26 | |
to discuss right now, we've handled | 22:28 | |
the strategy of where we go from here | 22:30 | |
as the negotiations have developed | 22:33 | |
and I think that's we need to do. | 22:34 | |
We're not really at any type of action | 22:37 | |
except that the next action which we will take | 22:39 | |
is on the quadrangle and a massive demonstration, | 22:41 | |
night and day, and that's where we go from here | 22:44 | |
until we decide otherwise. | 22:47 | |
- | Yeah, what are the (mumbles) ? | 22:49 |
- | In a second, we're getting to multiply, | 22:51 |
the State now has started a strike, | 22:52 | |
called the Sunday Night on the Quad. | 22:54 | |
We're seeing a snowballing. | 22:56 | |
Our effect now will be a double effect on the quad, | 22:58 | |
it'll support the union. | 23:01 | |
The union is out on strike. | 23:02 | |
The union is what we want to see succeed at Duke, | 23:04 | |
and this effort I think intensifies | 23:06 | |
our efforts in that respect. | 23:08 | |
But I really hope that you'll listen | 23:11 | |
because I just finished talking to somebody who's | 23:13 | |
just came down from New York, | 23:17 | |
because she was interested in what was happening here. | 23:19 | |
And she just told me, I just called he | 23:22 | |
because she talks about something tonight | 23:24 | |
when we were up at dinner, | 23:26 | |
and I have predicted that something like this could happen | 23:28 | |
where the health of one of the participants | 23:31 | |
would be as it is. | 23:36 | |
And she said that this happened at various other colleges | 23:40 | |
and that this was, when the nitty gritty | 23:43 | |
really got down, this was the only way out. | 23:45 | |
Now I'm not, the problem is | 23:47 | |
that a lot of people | 23:49 | |
don't wanna be as cynical as that, that's obvious. | 23:52 | |
And I don't like to be a cynic, | 23:54 | |
and I'm nervous as hell. | 23:56 | |
The thing is, is that I think that | 23:58 | |
right now more than ever, | 24:00 | |
let me just give you three different | 24:03 | |
experiences that happened tonight. | 24:04 | |
I had helped organize a conference, | 24:07 | |
so I wasn't able to be here most of the day, | 24:09 | |
but I had talked to a lot of people | 24:11 | |
on campus, in the dining hall. | 24:12 | |
People I'd never known before, | 24:14 | |
never been in any kind of movement or anything like this. | 24:15 | |
They were not only curious, | 24:18 | |
they were very interested and very supportive. | 24:19 | |
The other thing is is that I was at a bar, | 24:22 | |
and I saw the speakers who would come to the coffers. | 24:24 | |
And one of them was telling me | 24:28 | |
that we wouldn't stay here until | 24:30 | |
all the four demands were settled, | 24:32 | |
and I was just kidding around and saying, | 24:35 | |
damn right they're gonna stay here. | 24:37 |
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